Olive Oil Fraud Skyrockets as Prices Bite
It is the oldest rule in this trade: when the price of real oil goes up, the fakers come out. Early 2024, with prices at unheard-of highs, proved it all over again.
What happened
As the shortage pushed prices to records, reports of olive-oil fraud climbed sharply across Europe — lesser oils sold as “extra virgin,” cheap imports passed off as local, mislabelled origins. France and other importers were hit hard by both soaring prices and adulteration at once.
Why it happens, every time
It is simple economics. The bigger the gap between what real extra virgin costs and what a fraudster can sell a fake for, the greater the incentive to cheat — so fraud tracks the price line almost exactly. Scarcity doesn’t just empty the shelves; it fills them with lies.
High prices are precisely when to be most careful, and the rules are the same as ever: buy on a harvest date and a single named origin, in dark glass, and be doubly suspicious of a “bargain” premium oil — at 2024 prices, cheap-and-fancy is a near-certain tell. See extra virgin that isn’t and how olive oil gets cut.
Source, early 2024: The Connexion, on soaring prices and fraud.